Doctor describes several near death experiences

Dr. Americo Minotti held the second part of his “Proof of Life after Death” Wednesday by producing cases in support of an afterlife.

The series is broken into three parts, concluding next week on April 3.

Minotti is a doctor with the Northwest Ear, Nose, and Throat practice in Elkin.

After a brief recap of last week’s introduction for this week’s newcomers, Minotti delved into seven cases of believers and their near death experiences (NDE’s). Minotti reminded the audience that under the rules of cross-referencing in the nation’s judicial system, if multiple witnesses all say the same thing independently from one another, their account is regarded as truth.

He began the second night in his series with a man who went into surgery for kidney stones – a routine procedure. The man died during the surgery and was clinically dead for an hour and a half, according to Minotti. In medicine, seven minutes is the amount of time the brain can sustain without suffering from damage.

The man returned and gave his account of the afterlife, Minotti said. His was a very different scene from the one experienced by the medical staff struggling to pull him back from the brink. Minotti said that while they worked as quickly as possible, the man said he felt total peace, like Paul spoke of in Philippians 4:7, “and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding…”

His wife, also a believer, prayed to God to claim the promise of “life, and more abundantly” for her husband.

The man continued, saying he saw a beautiful landscape with everything very alive in it. Then he was brought back.

He was alive again, but the doctors could not hold him, and he flatlined again. This time he saw Jesus, and felt that He loved the man with all of His being. He also saw angels, which seemed to communicate to Jesus telepathically and nodded in acknowledgment of His wishes.

Though the man loved his family, he did not wish to return when was told he had to go back. He had seen loved ones he had known throughout his life, but was also aware of his family throughout the generations who had died before he was ever born, all welcoming him.

Jesus told him something the man said comforted him. Jesus said, “I need you there more than I need you here.”

When he reentered his body, he lay for three days unconscious. Doctors did not expect him to live, but when he woke up three days later the medical staff nicknamed him “the Miracle Man.”

The second case was a young Private in the military during World War II. Hours away from shipping out to a medical school, Pvt. George Ritchie died and was confirmed dead twice of pneumonia, Minotti said. His body lay in wait for the morgue, and stayed there as Ritchie exited the room and flew across town.

Ritchie described the flight as going wherever the soul desired, an element of the fourth dimension Minotti recognizes as one of the key items in a NDE. Ritchie was unable to communicate or touch anyone, and realized he had left more in the medical facility than he expected.

Upon returning, Ritchie located his own body and realized what had happened. After being pulled by a bright light he was in the presence of someone a voice announced as “THE Son of God.” Minotti said that as the man spoke to Jesus, he was aware that He knew all about the man, and that lying when questioned “what have you done with your life?” was useless.

Minotti illustrated the reality of NDEs and their proof of an afterlife by using Ritchie to show these things happen to the intelligent as well as the uneducated; the blue collar as well as the white collar.

Minotti’s third case of the night was one he provided to disprove the arguments that people see things in NDEs that are explainable. A woman in England was born blind, and up until her serious car accident had never seen anything. When she died on the operating table, she was suddenly in the air above her bed, flooded by strange visions of a woman on an operating bed.

Frightened by the sudden and overwhelming sensory data, she slowly identified herself as the patient below by the woman’s wedding ring and hair. She felt completely detached from her body, and rather than stay to watch it she passed up through the ceiling into the air.

She entered a place of light and lighted figures around her, and was aware of total knowledge in her own mind. She called the experience of later reentering her own body “excruciatingly painful.”

Minotti provided another case, one in which the woman who died was entirely monitored for medical signs during her experiment. He used this to show those who experienced NDEs were neither dying nor waking up, but actually dead when their experiences took place.

Pam Reynolds was diagnosed with a deadly aneurysm that could only be removed by using an experimental surgery, one in which she was nearly frozen. While her body temperature was lowered to between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius (50-59 degrees Fahrenheit) her brain was totally stopped.

She would be clinically dead for one hour to prevent damage to her brain or permanent death. Every known life sign was monitored during the procedure.

Machines that produced clicks were inserted in her ears, and to the outside world she was supposed to be clinically dead and completely unreceptive to the surgery.

Instead, Reynolds was aware of the drill whirling and the instruments over the surgeon’s shoulder. She was pulled by a bright light, an experience she described as “going over a hill really fast,” and then discerned her family and grandmother. She saw a bright light all around, and when she asked if that was God the people responded that the light “was what happened when God breathed.”

She too was reluctant to go back to her body, but her uncle kept coaxing her to go. Finally he “pushed her,” like being pushed into a pool, she said. Reynolds said it had taken her a long time to forgive him for it, because she did not want to leave.

Minotti ended the evening by showing the story of a woman who died and rose up from the ground floor to the roof a hospital. She took in the view from the hospital roof while out of her body.

Doctors tried to resuscitate her to no avail. Then after they had given up she reached up and touched the doctor’s arm on her own, saying she had seen a red shoe on the roof during her time out of body.

No one believed her story, until a medical staff member returned later with a red sneaker and a scared look on his face.

Minotti closed by taking questions from the audience. When asked if he believed the stories told were those of a glorified body as described in the book of the Revelation, Minotti said he did not know but that to the people who had the NDEs their bodies were as real or more real than their physical bodies here.

Minotti also addressed the childrens’ cases he mentioned March 20. When asked if all the children had gone to a heavenly experience, Minotti said all those he had heard of had experienced positive NDEs.

When speaking on suicide attempts, he said of the 20 he knew all had “hellish” experiences. The individuals all regretted their wasted lives and made major changes afterward. He prefaced his comments by saying he was not trying to affect anyone’s beliefs on the subject of suicide.

To contact Taylor Pardue call 336-835-1513 ext. 15, or email him at tpardue@civitasmedia.com.